My friend and MMD subscriber Alan Mueller sent me the following
information about Fred Vokoun that he found on Ancestry.com from
the 1920 census:
Fred Vokoun, age 43, birth year about 1877, birthplace Ohio,
home in 1920: Cleveland Ward 13, Cuyahoga [county] Ohio, street:
Dolloff Road, house number: 5328, race white, occupation musician.
It goes on to say that his mother and father were both from Bohemia,
that he is married to Rose Vokoun, and that his household members
consist of Fred (43), Rose (42), Beatrice (19), and Rose Fronek [his
mother-in-law?] (80). The 1910 census shows Fred's occupation as
band leader and that the Vokouns were then living with his in-laws,
the Froneks.
More information comes from my friend, Craig Smith. The 1910
Cleveland, Ohio, city directory shows Fred Vokoun, director of the
Loyal American Concert Band, living at 5328 Doloff [sic] Road in the
southeast. There is also an entry for Vokoun's Concert Band at the
same address. The 1910 census shows the two Froneks and three Vokouns
living at 5324 Dolloff, apparently an Austro-Bohemian neighborhood.
Craig sent a card that seems to show Fred Vokoun serving as a musician
in the Fifth Regiment of the Ohio Infantry during the Spanish War.
He further reports that Fred and Rose were married in 1899.
Craig also sent a link to a website that gives this information:
Fred was born in 1876 and was a former clarinetist and saxophonist
in Cleveland theatre orchestras. He was a member of a musical family
and the first to play a sax in a theatre pit band in Cleveland theatres
-- Empire, Hippodrome and Opera House. He also played violin and
cello and began teaching after retirement from playing theatres. His
father, Frank Vokoun, was credited with founding the Cleveland Local
of the Musicians Union. Fred died in Sandusky, Ohio, [February 14,
1957; burial in Cleveland].
Ref. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=73526021&ref=acom
Interestingly, that website gives links (for pay) to two marriage
certificates for a Fred Vokoun in Ohio and two divorce certificates
for the same.
Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York